The Sopranos Vs. The Wire Vs. Breaking Bad

[Hollywood Jack]

My favorite moments are Tony and Carmela fighting

They did make up, though.

 

[D3THRONED]

Breaking Bad easily has the best cinematography and The Wire has the worst, but I wouldn't call the cinematography on The Wire anywhere near awful and I don't get the part about shitty acting. I'm re-watching The Wire right now and I was thinking about how good the acting on the show is, even in relatively small parts like Isaiah Whitlock Jr. as corrupt state senator Clay Davis or Michael Kostroff as CRIMINAL lawyer Maurice Levy. I'll give you that The Wire doesn't have an iconic lead performance like Bryan Cranston as Walter White or James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, but it does have a great ensemble cast.

Good points and I'll concede as I was probably too harsh on The Wire. I just didn't enjoy it as much as either BB or The Sopranos, but I'll acknowledge it's better than The Sopranos.

 

[IIIIIIII]

I haven’t watched the Wire but I have watched Sopranos and BB.

I love both shows and feel like they have their distinct strengths. Sopranos has a humorous undertone, some episodes are just pure comedy gold. But imo it doesn’t do as good of a job in capturing intense moments like BB.

BB starts strong and finishes even stronger. Sopranos simmers and gets very good in the middle seasons but then drops in quality (not by much) towards the end.

Overall, very tough to pick but I would favour BB because it’s cinematography is just off the charts and just pure eye-candy.

yeah, i feel the same in regards to how breaking bad and the sopranos ended. breaking bad ended in spectacular fashion. it was totally unexpected on my part. the sopranos was kind of similar, but the ending wasn't nearly as exciting as breaking bad was.

i guess the wire is the next show for me to watch. haven't seen it.

 

[Iroh]

BB because...

 

[Diogenes of Sinope]

They gave David Simon as many seasons of The Wire as he wanted, they worked with him on half a dozen other series or min-series before and after The Wire as well. It's not like David Simon had a tough time at or with HBO at all.

Speaking of which, The Corner is a good watch

 

[Trax]

I'm not entirely sure I agree with this narrative. The Sopranos had already been in production for five years (and had been on the air for almost four) when The Wire aired. And they gave The Wire the key spot right after The Sopranos to give them a lead-in audience. That's how I found the show.

The Sopranos was the #1 show on HBO. They earned their stripes. If anything, having The Sopranos in the first place helped boost The Wire. They gave David Simon as many seasons of The Wire as he wanted, they worked with him on half a dozen other series or min-series before and after The Wire as well. It's not like David Simon had a tough time at or with HBO at all.

Money was never a problem for The Wire, HBO hooked them up pretty good, with nice amount keeping in mind that the producers didnt justified it with expensive cast but the production.

But how can you justify that viewership was so low at the initial run that The Wire got almost cancelled. And few years later The Wire came on top and now its probbably one of the greatest shows ever made.

Dwarfed by Sopranos, poor promotion and "lack of hype". Maybe I can come up with another reason and that is literally the line that opened the first episode "This is America man.." It was, still is and will be.
Show perfectly depicted the world we were living and nothing has changed troughout the years.
Other than lack of smartphones everything is still relevant now.

 

[Hollywood Jack]

Speaking of which, The Corner is a good watch

Fun fact: Corey Parker Robinson, who played Detective Leander Sydnor on The Wire, played a hopper named R.C. on The Corner.

 

[Dan O]

That is a tough decision. Big fan of all three. I will say though, I’ve done my second rewatch on all three within the past two years (currently finishing the wire again), and I’ve got to go with the Wire.

Just the depth of development and the lack of “throw away” episodes is big for me.

 

[Diogenes of Sinope]

Fun fact: Corey Parker Robinson, who played Detective Leander Sydnor on The Wire, played a hopper named R.C. on The Corner.

I remember and Lance Reddick who played Lt. Daniels played a drug addict

 

[Hollywood Jack]

Money was never a problem for The Wire, HBO hooked them up pretty good, with nice amount keeping in mind that the producers didnt justified it with expensive cast but the production.

But how can you justify that viewership was so low at the initial run that The Wire got almost cancelled. And few years later The Wire came on top and now its probbably one of the greatest shows ever made.

Dwarfed by Sopranos, poor promotion and "lack of hype". Maybe I can come up with another reason and that is literally the line that opened the first episode "This is America man.." It was, still is and will be.
Show perfectly depicted the world we were living and nothing has changed troughout the years.
Other than lack of smartphones everything is still relevant now.

The debut episode of The Wire had good ratings, actually. Probably because of The Sopranos lead in. The first two seasons both had good ratings. Oddly enough, season 2 had better ratings than the first one, even though season 2 seems to be the most poorly regarded among fans, myself included (I don't dislike it or anything, it's just comparatively weaker).

The ratings started going down with season 3, although season 3 seems to be the consensus favorite among fans, again myself included. Season 5 had the weakest ratings as far as I can tell (ratings for season 4 aren't available on Wikipedia, not sure if they can be found elsewhere).

One theory I can come up with, based on season 2 having the highest ratings even though it was the least liked among fans and critics, is that having more white characters led to higher ratings and also more crossover with Sopranos fans. If The Wire had more white people in the cast and characters throughout the show, the ratings might have been higher. I'm not bitching or trying to come up with conspiracy theories or anything, just something I'm throwing out there looking at the numbers and thinking about what the difference was with season 2.

You can see the ratings for each episode on the far right:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire_(season_1)#Episodes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire_(season_2)#Episodes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire_(season_3)#Episodes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire_(season_5)#Episodes

 

[dracul]

Lol at people saying the wire. Decent show but perhaps the most overrated also. I guess it’s edgy choosing something that flew under the radar when it was out. But let’s stop the nonsense.

yeahhh im watching it now on s2 and its meh.. but never watched the other 2 as i know they'll be overrated too

 

[IloveTHIS]

Ive only seen Breaking Bad

so.........Breaking Bad.

yeahhh im watching it now on s2 and its meh.. but never watched the other 2 as i know they'll be overrated too

Breaking Bad is not overrated. I cant say I have ever in my life met someone that didnt like BB or didnt finish the entire show.

Even my damn mom loved it

I actually never watched a single episode of BB while it was actually on. I figured I wasnt missing out on much. One day I saw the full show was on Netflix and decided to give one episode a shot.

I finished the entire fucking show in less than a week. I took personal days off from work just to keep binge watching 10+ episodes a day.

 

[Hanz_Blitz]

This comes down to Wire vs Sopranos for me as I’ve never considered BB to be in the same breath as the other two. I’m back on the Sopranos train lately but I can understand those picking the Wire

 

[SalvadorAllende]

During my first watch, season two was my least favorite. On my second watch I realized it’s probably one of the best seasons in the entire series

I'm rewatching it with my gf. Did not liked the season 2 the first time. Her first time watching it and it's her favorite (we are in season 5).

 

[Trax]

The debut episode of The Wire had good ratings, actually. Probably because of The Sopranos lead in. The first two seasons both had good ratings. Oddly enough, season 2 had better ratings than the first one, even though season 2 seems to be the most poorly regarded among fans, myself included (I don't dislike it or anything, it's just comparatively weaker).

The ratings started going down with season 3, although season 3 seems to be the consensus favorite among fans, again myself included. Season 5 had the weakest ratings as far as I can tell (ratings for season 4 aren't available on Wikipedia, not sure if they can be found elsewhere).

One theory I can come up with, based on season 2 having the highest ratings even though it was the least liked among fans and critics, is that having more white characters led to higher ratings and also more crossover with Sopranos fans. If The Wire had more white people in the cast and characters throughout the show, the ratings might have been higher. I'm not bitching or trying to come up with conspiracy theories or anything, just something I'm throwing out there looking at the numbers and thinking about what the difference was with season 2.

You can see the ratings for each episode on the far right:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire_(season_1)#Episodes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire_(season_2)#Episodes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire_(season_3)#Episodes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire_(season_5)#Episodes

S02 probbably had better ratings following great first season, and S03 had opposite. People couldnt understand why they shifted plot so hard in S02 from Barskdale crew so they gave up on S03. And unfortunately missed seasons 3 and 4 the best ones. Even tho I liked S02 at the time I had someone who told me to pay attention to S02 its important for whole picture(or visual novel, how they called Te Wire).. That's what HBO should have done, but whatever.

 

[wlu.29]

Lol at people saying the wire. Decent show but perhaps the most overrated also. I guess it’s edgy choosing something that flew under the radar when it was out. But let’s stop the nonsense.

Nah bro, i like most of your posts, but in this case you are wrong

The wire is a true masterpiece

 

[soggyfist]

I remember and Lance Reddick who played Lt. Daniels played a drug addict

Desmond Mobay was undercover again

 

[Diogenes of Sinope]

Oddly enough, right now The Wire is losing. The Sopranos is in 2nd place and Breaking Bad is winning. It's real close, though. The Wire has 21 votes, The Sopranos has 23 and Breaking Bad has 24. I was the 21st vote for The Wire.

Breaking Bad is catching up. Interesting.....

Damn good close race all 3 were goat quality I voted b.b though

Breaking Bad is catching up. Interesting.....

Should I set a deadline for the poll results to close? maybe a week or so?

or just keep it open indefinitely

 

[revoltub]

Should I set a deadline for the poll results to close? maybe a week or so?

or just keep it open indefinitely

Keep it open so I can watch the sopranos.

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

Lol at people saying the wire. Decent show but perhaps the most overrated also. I guess it’s edgy choosing something that flew under the radar when it was out. But let’s stop the nonsense.

Pfff. The writing in the wire made breaking bad look like a pbs kids special. If you know anything about the kind of life that breaking bad portrayed you'd laugh. Ya, ya.... I know it's a show but damn, I can't have my intelligence insulted that much. It started off great but just got more and more over the top and unrealistic.

The wire on the other hand stayed true to its gritty and raw plot lines and superb acting. If anything, Breaking Bad was the overrated show.